Archie Stirling-Aird
CENTURION
Fundraising for MS Society Scotland
Story
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Myself, Oli Hickman and Hugh McLean are taking on the epic challenge of a 101 mile nonstop walk in North East Scotland on Friday 9th June this year with the aim to finish in less than 48 hours on the morning of Sunday 11th June. We will be starting at Melgarve at the headwaters of the River Spey, then following a number of trails including the East Highland Way, Speyside Way, Dava Way and Moray Way all the way to Hopeman on the Moray coast where my wife Joanna is from. To give you a better idea of scale, it is not far short of walking nonstop from Perth to Inverness and we will also be climbing approx 6,500ft over the duration of the walk. We will have series of checkpoints approx every 10 miles where we will be met by our support team for sustenance.
We will be raising money for the MS Society Scotland with the aim of increasing awareness of this unpredictable neurological disease and help the MS Society carry on their research into more – and better – treatments for MS, and hopefully one day, a cure.
Some of you will know Joanna my wife was diagnosed with MS three years ago, and sadly her mother Diana died from MS six years ago. Jo has Relapsing Remitting MS and has suffered visual problems as well as numbness and fatigue. After the recent birth of our daughter Sophia, Jo suffered visual loss in her left eye and severe pain and balance loss. Thankfully Jo has regained her vision and is back working as a nurse but this highlighted to me the very unpredictable and scary nature of this disease.
MS is a disease of the central nervous system, it poses severe challenges to one’s quality of life and has as yet no known cure nor, for many like Jo, any reliable way of stopping its progression.More than 100,000 people in the UK have MS, and symptoms usually start in your 20s and 30s. Once diagnosed, MS stays with you for life, but treatments and specialists can help you to slow the progression of the disease and manage its symptoms. A cause has not yet been found and neither has a cure, but research is progressing fast.
It would mean so much to myself and the team to try and raise as much money as possible to help fund research into this awful disease and hopefully to one day find a cure.